Tiberium
by Lukeovich
Summary: The earth is dying, Kane lives, and GDI is once again at war with the Brotherhood of Nod.


**Tiberium**

It had been a long day reflected Captain Bowers as she made her way up the nearest hill in an attempt to gain a better viewpoint over the Tiberium fields her patrol was currently trying to navigate.

Scratch that, she thought after a quick glance at her Raider suit's HUD. It had been a long night.

The soldier crested the hill and saw the green forest stretched out before her. It extended beyond the horizon and glowed with a sickly green color. Far away, great dark clouds crackled with a malicious energy and sent down bolts of lighting to smite the earth.

The soldier was unperturbed by the display of alien energies; she was ZOCOM and the bizarre ecosystem that ran rampant across the planet was as much her home as the rapidly shrinking Blue Zones. She turned around to see the progress of the rest of the force and grimaced as she saw the armor column's slow progress.

The roar of rockets brought her attention back to the green fields and she grinned as the dull gray armor of a Zone Trooper bounded up the hill and towards her position. Her career had left her little time for socializing and she had few friends, but those she did have she valued highly. This particular trooper was one of her oldest. It took barely a minute for the trooper to make his way to the top, his jet pack allowing him to easily bypass any major obstacles.

He landed in front of her with a thump that sent dust and Tiberium shards scattering flying into the air. The trooper waited until the mess had cleared before giving her a report.

"Left the rest of my squad about 500 meters ahead of us. They'll provide us forward observation and hopefully let us know if anything weird is waiting out there. Bad news for the armour though, that Tiberium field only gets thicker the further we go. They wont be able to maneuver down there. Hell, my guys are having a hard time advancing themselves." He sighed and let his suit's viewport clear exposing a pitch black face with blue eyes that he liked to attribute to his Nigerian mother.

"If command wants us to keep moving were going to have to bypass this whole field and cross the outer crater rim. And that will add at least another two hours to the patrol ma'am."

"Damn…" Muttered Bowers. "Command won't like that one bit Jeffries."

"Command ain't out here are they ma'am? Tell them they're welcome to provide us with air transport if they start to complain." Growled Jeffries. Only a few people called him by his real name, most referring to him by his abbreviated rank: Chief.

"Better let them know we'll be spending the night out here then." Bowers activated her communication system and linked into the local GDI command net.

"Command, this is Gamma patrol over."

No response. She tried again.

"Command, this is Gamma patrol over."

Still nothing, Bowers was about to try again when Jeffries interrupted her.

"Something big is happening on the regional command net. Might want to check it out, looks like Goddard Space Center was hit, can't tell how bad though."

Bowers linked to the net and was greeted with a flood of chatter from all echelons of GDI command.

"…defenses down! Say again, all A-Sat missile defenses are down!"

"I don't care who's in charge up there! Get them off that station now!"

"Launch detected in Africa…Its an ICBM!"

"Evacuate that station NOW!"

"I can't reach them!"

Bowers moved her suit around enough to view the immediate sky above them. The bright yellow glow that indicated the _GDSS Philadelphia _was still there, but from the corner of her eye Bowers could see a small dot streak towards the station. The net suddenly became very quiet.

The dot merged with the station's glow and suddenly it expanded several times nearly eclipsing the moon in its intensity.

"My god…" said Jeffries not caring that he could be heard over the entire East Coast GDI command net.

Horrorstruck, the GDI patrol could only watch as the light in the night sky began to slowly separate. Smaller lights broke away and sped across the sky before disappearing across the horizon. The command net went berserk.

"Philadelphia is gone! How the hell did NOD even have the organization to coordinate that kind of attack!"

"OP Charlie reports NOD forces engaging GDI defenses. They are requesting air support."

"Command, Firebase Zulu is not responding to com checks. Please advise."

"….everywhere….so many!…Where'd they come from!"

"…overrun! Falling…outpost zeta!"

Bowers shut the net off quickly. It seemed that the old enemy had reared its head again and quick action was needed if her patrol was to avoid ambush from prowling NOD forces.

"Jeffries, get your squad together!" There was no response save for a groan of despair.

She looked over and saw the Zone Trooper waving his free hand in front of his viewport. She took a closer look and realized his normally bright blue eyes were dull and cloudy. The Chief had not turned his viewport's polarization back on before the explosion. He was blind.

"Jeffries…" She said gently grasping his free hand with her armored gauntlet. "Hold on, we have to get back to base, now."

He followed her without a word but Bowers could see the fear etched on his face. She recalled the rest of the patrol to her location and loaded Jeffries onto an APC before giving the order to move out.

It was 2047 and the Third Tiberium War had begun.


End file.
